Days Past
by ClinicallyInsaneAndDangerous
Summary: A trainer remembers its time with its pokemon and how everything started. T to be safe
1. Chapter 1

**Hey~ CIAD here. This time I plan on continuing this multichaptered story. ^^ I'd also like to that my Beta HopeThePixii for picking out all the spelling and gramar errors i made while writing this. Thanks Pix!**

**Bunny: ... Now?**

**Now.**

**Bunny: C' doesn't own pokemon or anything besides her DS and (lack of) humor.**

**Hey! ... Now on to the show!**

* * *

Now, when people see a trainer story they automatically assume it's gonna be about some wannabe ten-year-old getting their first pokémon from an eccentric professor that's going to ask them to go out and find every single damn pokémon there is- and catch them. _Of course_.

Let me tell you now, dear reader, that there is no way in this Arceus-forsaken world that any single person can see _all _the known pokémon and capture them. No possible way unless you're playing a video game, and trust me, the pokémon world is _no_ video game. People get hurt; so do their pokémon.

Training is not the safe harmless sport you make it out to be. It's freaking _dangerous_ out there; but I suppose you're not reading this to hear me preach about the dangers of this world. You're here to listen to the stories I have to tell from when I was a traveling trainer.

Well, you'll be getting a rude awakening if you think I was one of those trainers that had one of those fairytale journeys that ended with them becoming the champion of their region. I never made it that far.

Don't let my lack of championship matches fool you though, my pokémon were some of the best there were. I owe many things to them, including my life. Only Arceus knows what would have happened if they weren't around then. We shared many good times and sadly even more bad ones.

I'm getting off tangent now, but like I said earlier, my journey wasn't easy. We did many things, my pokémon and I, but of course we didn't get any recognition for our hardships. No, all the glory goes to those who became champions. I'm not jealous or bitter or anything like that. It just would be nice to get some recognition for what we did, for what we went through. I guess that's why I'm going to tell you my tale. It all started…

* * *

It all started on an overcast morning. The sun was out; it was just hidden behind some low hanging clouds that looked like they could open up any second and dump several hours of torrential rain down on the general area. What a lovely way to start a day, huh?

It's rather interesting how well one can remember the day they would get their first pokémon. Seriously, you can ask any random trainer on the street and get dragged into a story that can last anywhere from half an hour to dinner time, depending on if they decide to include their whole life story while they're at it.

Personally, the thing I remember most clearly about that morning was the smell of burning toast. That usually meant that Mom was up and trying to cook breakfast before she had her two daily cups of coffee. Joy.

Some people would find this situation rather funny; I mean, how many can actually say that their mom burnt the toast on the day that they were going to become trainers? Not many, I would think.

However for me this had become an almost daily routine; wake up, go downstairs and stop mom from burning down the house, get her first cup of coffee, and make breakfast for the two of us. Once more, say it with me this time, joy.

I don't remember eating breakfast that day; my memory skips to right after eating when mom is putting the dirty dishes in the sink. I remember being a bit worried about how she was going to react when I told her I was leaving today to get a pokemon, and how I was even going to bring it up. Luckily, she started the conversation for me.

"What do you have planned for today honey? Are you going to go down to Lady Veriss' house to help her with her Skittys?"

I remember wincing as she said that. Old Lady Veriss had nearly as many Skitty as she had liver spots. And trust me; she had a lot of liver spots. Now, I had nothing against helping old ladies take care of their multiple Skittys; I had just hoped that I could get away from this town as soon as possible.

You see, I lived in one of those towns that you'll never find on a map or in a guide book. We were one of those places that had nothing special to attract travelers to; no rare pokémon, no gym, no contests, no special events. Heck, we didn't even have a Pokémon Center. It was pretty much dead around here.

"Well. . ." I had started, debating on whether or not I should bring up my plans on catching a pokémon to her. Mom cut me off before I got a chance to spill the beans.

"What? Is helping an old lady take care of the pokémon not important? Do you have something more important to do than that?" she snapped, giving me her patented 'you-better-have-a-good-answer-or-else' look.

" . . . Okay, okay . . . I'll give her a hand." To be blunt, I caved. I never could keep my nerve when she gave me that look. Though, thinking back, I probably should have told her my plans right then and there; but then I wouldn't have met my first pokemon, either.

It doesn't matter now, seeing as it was all in the past, but sometimes I can't help but wonder how things might have turned out if I had kept my nerve.

I'll save you the boredom of having to read about my other daily routines and skip right to the point when I got to Old Lady Veriss's house. I swear that old woman had some psychic ability, on the account that she always opened the door just as I was going to knock. Well, that, or she spied on people. You can never tell with the old ladies.

Anyway, there I was about to knock on her front door, and like clock work she opened it just as I was about to make contact with the wooden frame.

Mrs. Veriss wasn't your average crazy old cat lady; Arceus no. She never smelled like she lived with tons of cat Pokemon, nor did she look like the type that spent most of her time indoors obsessing over her long-gone past. She only seemed to be an excessive Skitty fan, seeing as I've never seen any other type feline pokémon hanging around her house in the thirteen years that I've lived there.

"Child!" she exclaimed, opening the door wider so I could come in. "Good morning, good morning! Did your mother send you down here again?" Another thing about Mrs. Veriss; she could take care of herself and her Skittys with relative ease. She was in pretty good shape for some one who was heading into her nineties back then.

"Yep," I muttered, walking past her and into the house. My mom had some strange idea that Mrs. Veriss needed help with just about everything, even when it was clear that she didn't. Mrs. Veriss knew this but still welcomed me in every time and found me something to do.

"Well, my poor Jilly and Billy have been fighting recently . . . All my other little dears are afraid to get close to them," she fretted. The names of her Skittys all ended with '-illy' too. Interesting, huh?

I sighed and made for the back room, since that's where the Skitty stayed most of the time. Low and behold, when I got there the sounds of two cat pokémon fighting met my ears. There is really no way to describe the sound of two Skitty going at it in a full-out brawl. Even to this day, some fifteen or so years later, I still cannot find the words to describe it accurately. Words for the wise, don't pair up two Skitty in a Pokémon battle if you value your hearing.

Now, if I remember correctly, the two Skitty were having a full out battle in the center of the carpeted room, claws out and everything. Mrs. Veriss's other pokémon were huddled around the room's perimeter, staring on with wide eyes. A Skitty with its eyes open isn't something you see very often, but that day there were some fifteen-plus kitten pokémon doing just that.

I stepped over a group of the huddling Skitty and reached out to pull the two fighting ones apart. I promptly had my hands clawed to shreds. Looking back, that probably wasn't the best idea.

For my ego's sake, let's skip ahead several scratches, bites, and minutes later to when I had finally separated the fighting pokémon. And by "separated", I mean I had Billy pinned under one foot and Jilly held up above my head as they still tried to maul each other and me.

"Oh, wonderful! Aren't you such a dear?" Mrs. Veriss had decided to join me at that moment with two crates in hand. "Would you mind?" she asked, unhooking the mesh door to one of the crates.

I carefully put Jilly in the first crate, moving quickly so the ticked off Skitty couldn't get her claws in me again. All that was left was to crate up Billy. Sadly, he didn't look like he wanted to make it easy for me, seeing how he was hissing up a storm.

"Oh let me take care of that silly boy; why don't you go take care of your hands?" Mrs. Veriss offered, securing the lock on Jillys crate. "The bandages are on the-"

"The left side of the bathroom cabinet; I know." I finished for her, handing over the furious feline. "Thanks."

You might think it's weird how I know where to look for bandages, of all things, but this wasn't the first time I'd had the stuffing clawed out of me by one of her Skittys. Mrs. Veriss trained her kittens in the art of competitive pokémon battling. Lot's of fun for the person that has to break up the fights, huh? It's wonderful really. I think I used enough bandages daily to accommodate twenty hospital's burn wards in one day. Honest to Arceus I do.

By the time I had finished wrapping up my hands, they looked more like deformed white mittens than bandaged wounds but I wasn't complaining. After putting away the ointment, which might I add is very hard to do when your hands are wrapped up, it struck me. I had used up all the bandages.

I had wandered out of the bathroom and into the kitchen where Mrs. Veriss was patching up Jilly. For some strange reason she liked treating her pokémon over the garbage can. Don't ask me why, but she did.

"You're out of bandages."

"Oh really?" She looked up and put Jilly down on the counter top. "Would you be a dear and go out to Fortree City to pick some up for me?"

"… I'll go get the machete."

Now, you might think that's a weird thing to say, but have you _seen_ the grass and trees surrounding Fortree? It's almost impossible to get through unless you stick to a path. Or you carry a machete.

My journey to Fortree City was rather dull, and I doubt you want to hear me going on about cutting through the dense underbrush; especially if nothing happened while I was doing it. Now, since my town was off the beaten track, most of our supplies came from Fortree, so at least there we were known pretty well.

Still, you'll never find us on any kind of map, even the local ones. By the time I actually got to the Pokemart, I was drenched in water and mud from head to toe. The conditions surrounding Fortree City strike again. Like I said earlier, Fourtree City is surrounded by dense grass, trees, and underbrush. What I didn't mention is that there seemed to be a perpetual storm cloud over the area. Yep, rain and mud lover's heaven. Contrary to popular belief, Pokemarts don't just have merchandise related solely to pokémon training or care. Nope. They have a whole back section devoted to human needs, like canned food, canteens, traveling gear, and first aid kits. And by the first aid kits was bandages made for people to use, and the reason I was even in that place.

I picked out about a year's worth of bandages, which would probably be used up by next week, and headed to the counter to make my purchase. The bill came to about 1500 pokedollars, the usual, and I paid like any loyal customer.

Mrs. Veriss would ask me how much the bandages cost every time I went out for some, and I always told her half of what the bill's total was. After all, I was the one who always ended up needing them. Somehow, Mrs. Veriss always stopped the fights without getting a mark on her. Personally, I think those pink kittens had something against me; probably since I left Chilly in a tree once. Did I mention that all their names end in '-illy'?

I sighed as I left the store and was drenched from the heavy rain within seconds. Now all that was left was the trek back to Mrs. Veriss' house. I got going since I wasn't getting any drier just standing there. I can tell you now it was a _wonderful_ trip back. Wait a minute; who am I trying to kid? It was a pain, and I'll tell you why.

For some strange reason, the grass around those parts grew really, _really_ quickly. Like, by the time I left the store it had all grown back. Now I had to hack my way back, in the rain, through the mud and whatever else nature decided to throw my way. Sounds like lots of fun, right?

I had been hacking away steadily at a stubborn patch of weeds for a few minutes when a speeding grey blob flew by and crashed right into a tree. It must have been going fast if it couldn't swerve around an obstacle the size of a, well, tree. Like any good civilian, I poked it with a stick to see if it was still alive. What in the world was it?

". . . Cast . . . form . . . " Well, that answered both of my questions.

"Uh . . . Hey . . ." I called softly as I approached it. How badly was it hurt?

The little blob, or Castform, opened its two beady little eyes and floated up slightly. It saw me and promptly flew head, face, whatever-first back into the tree. I wasn't _that_ bad looking, was I?

The Castform was clearly hurt and panicking, and it looked like I had been thrust into the role of the Good Samaritan. I approached the pokémon again, taking out a role of bandages from my plastic shopping bag and attempted to bandage it up. I say attempted because every time I got near it, it got up and flew into another tree, leaving me to run after it and waste more bandages.

After a half hour of chasing the pokémon around, which lead me to believe it wasn't as hurt as I first thought, I had finally caught and bandaged it up. The small blob flew out of my hands like a bullet when I was done and was gone in seconds. As I bent down to pick up the shopping bag it hit me.

"Shiiiiiiiiiiit . . ." I was out of bandages again.

* * *

** A cookie to who ever figures out what important detail I purposely left out of this chapter~**

**Bunny: More like you couldn't make up your mind. **

**Reveiws are nice and Flamers will get a hoard of rabid rabbits sent after them! **


	2. Chapter 2

**Authors note: **

**Wow it's been a long time.... Sorry for taking forever to update this. Truth be told actually started this chapter right after I submitted the first one. It's just taken me this long to finish it.**

**Hmm... I guess I have to use a disclaimer again.**

**I do not own pokemon. I only own the plot of this story and the non cannon characters in it.**

* * *

Let's see… where were we…? Oh yes, the Castform. I suppose common sense dictates that the grey blob was going to be my first pokemon. I guess I might have been a little misleading when I mentioned my starter earlier; I met it under some totally different circumstances.

While it's true that if I had told my mother that I was going to become a trainer I wouldn't have met my dear starter in the first place and my story would be very, VERY, different. But I'm getting off track now; I was talking about the Castform wasn't I?

Truth be told back then I thought I was never going to see the thing again, I was almost right. Almost being the key word. It would be a few months until I saw the critter again, but that's also not important at the moment. I still have a few more things to clear up before I continue my story.

When I mentioned earlier that my home town had nothing important or interesting enough to place it on a map there was one thing about the place that I could actually brag about. We were located right between Fortree City and the Safari Zone. Cool, huh?

I could go on and on about the Safari Zone for quite a while now but that would ruin the surprise. After all, I'll be telling you what you need to know about it in just a little bit so buckle up. It's time to reenter the story.

* * *

Now I was muddy, wet, and tired from chasing down that Castform, not to mention now I had to go back to the Fortree Pokemart and pick up some more bandages. It was lots and lots of fun, really. …. Not.

I had a feeling Mrs. Veriss was going to ask a lot of questions when I got back, some I didn't want to answer for the sake of what remained of my ego. Getting mauled by Skitty and then running around in the mud after a Castform does wonders for your moral. And by wonders I mean it gets slaughtered. Badly. Like, you need to hold a burial ceremony for your lost ego, bad.

Don't believe me? Try it and see for yourself.

Luckily for me the human ego is a hardy thing and can bounce back from almost anything with some nurturing and praise. Or in some cases a lot of praise. But I'm going off tangent now aren't I? I'm pretty sure you don't want to hear about my wounded self esteem, so let's skip forward a little to when I got back to Mrs. Veriss house. It's less boring that way.

"Deary!"

Yep. She did the whole open-the-door-before-you-knock-thing, again. Though I have to say her level of concern was touching.

She quickly ushered me in, well, after instructing me to peel off my mud soaked shoes and practically pushed me into the bathroom before bustling off to get one of my spare outfits. You might think this is odd but just like the bandages and machete it was part of the routine. However when I look back, the casualness of these activities cracks me up every time.

Mrs. Veriss was back with my fresh clothes as quickly as she had left to get them; turning and leaving the bathroom so I could have my privacy while I changed. As she closed the door one of her Skitty, one I knew very well, slipped in. Philly. I'm pretty sure I groaned at that point.

Philly was... odd. Well, all of Mrs. Veriss' Skitty were odd but Philly took the cake. He had a thing for bathrooms. Not just any bathrooms mind you, but bathrooms that were occupied. And I'm being dead serious. Yep, you haven't seen it all until you've seen the amazing perverted Skitty.

Philly… Well Philly just sat down and stared at me, kind of like he was waiting for me to start changing. Normally I would have done nothing until he got bored and pawed at the door to leave but today I was tired. Wet, muddy and just not in the mood to deal with him. So naturally I chose to kick him out of the bathroom like a furry pink soccer ball. Quite literally.

"SKIIIIIIIIII-!"

Sweet, sweet music to my ears, until he ran all the way back and started clawing at the closed door. I swear those Skitty must have had some Ditto or Wailmer in them from the way they just bounced back. The Wailmer genes seemed more plausible.

Ah, once more it seems like I'm going of track. Silly me.

When I had finished changing Mrs. Veriss practically shoved me out of the house, saying that I had done enough for today and that she wished me luck on my trip.

Wait a minute… WHAT?

Correct me if I'm wrong but I'm pretty sure I never told her anything about going on a journey. Mrs. Veriss strikes again with her odd ability to know what's going on.

Now I'm not saying that I didn't like the old lady, she was actually pretty cool, but come on. Don't you think it's a little freaky when she does her ESP thing? Well… it's either an ESP thing or she spies on people, but I'm pretty sure I said something like this earlier.

So anyways, I was now standing on her stoop wondering if I was losing it. And there was a fifty-fifty chance I was. Who knew?

* * *

By now I bet you're getting impatient to know what my first pokemon was and where I got it. I can understand that very well, but there are a few details that I have to clarify so you won't get confused.

Now most of you know what the Safari Zone is, after all, every region besides Johto has one. Though technically Jhoto does have the National park and got a Safari Zone of its own several years after my journey.

Well every so often a couple pokemon get out when they're shipped into the area from their native region. Now, it wasn't often that this happened so the area data is never updated to include them, but if you were lucky you might see a Heracross or Buneary when you traveled by. Uncommon pokemon were a treat to see and if my memory serves me I saw a herd of Stantler once. And occasionally the staff running the Safari Zone will ship in pokemon from different locations in Hoenn as well.

Now with all the possible pokemon that could appear in any region it must be hard for you to guess who my first was, so I'll cut you some slack and narrow down the possibilities. My starter was actually a pokemon first discovered here in Hoenn and with the exception of several rare appearances in other regions, could only be found here.

Still no clue? Too bad, I guess you'll have to wait a little longer.

* * *

Truth be told, I didn't catch my starter. I actually won him in a contest, but I'll also get to that part in due time.

The thing I dreaded most upon returning home from Mrs. Veriss' house was telling my mom that I was leaving. Part of me was afraid that she'd go all mother hen on me and refuse to let me go. The other half was worrying that she'd say yes too easily. I'd be really lucky if it was the latter but all the same it would be a little saddening to be sent off without a bit of a struggle.

To be honest I got a mix of both. Looking back it was quite possibly the best way to go. Mom fussed over me for a good hour or so before pausing and giving up. The funny thing was that I didn't need to say a thing at all. She was basically talking to herself the entire time. It was one of the oddest and most humorous moments of my life, hands down.

Mom began to fuss some more as she raced around the house and packed everything she deemed useful into a single back pack. Even to this say I have no idea how she did that. Must have been some sort of skill taught to moms in mom school, I dunno.

Somehow she had managed to pack half the of the non perishable foods in the house, a first aid kit, a sleeping bag and tent plus clothes into one bag. I just stood there in awe until she came up to me with my backpack in hand.

"Are you positive this is what you want to do? Mommy here has no problem if you want to stay home for a little bit longer." Meanwhile as she was saying this she practically shoved my bag into my arms and guided me to the door. You'd think she was actually happy to see me go by the way she was acting.

"Here's 500 poke*, I'm sure you can use it to get an adorable little starter from the Safari Zone." And with that she shoved the money into my hands and shut the door, leaving me standing dumbfounded out on the porch.

"……" That defiantly wasn't the reaction I had been expecting earlier but none the less it wasn't the worst possible reaction she could have had, namely putting me under house arrest until I was legally old enough to leave.

With a sigh I slung my bag over my shoulder and let out a surprised yelp when the momentum nearly sent me flying off the stairs. What did she pack in there? Bricks? It defiantly seemed like that was the case, and who knows, I wasn't exactly paying attention when mom was packing the darn thing.

After debating on whether or not to risk opening my backpack to remove a few of the heavier and unnecessary items for a few moments I found myself on the nearly indistinguishable trail that lead out of town and towards Lilycove, although I was slightly hunched over from the weight of my untouched pack. Better be safe than sorry and I'd rather open it in the safety of a pokemon center where I knew there'd be a Nurse Joy on standby should anything go wrong. While I doubt my mom put anything dangerous into my bag there was no way it could be so heavy unless it was packed to the point of bursting.

Now looking back I can remember just how heavy my bag really was, but at that moment in time as I set out for the Safari Zone I really didn't seem to notice it. The thrill of me finally heading on my way to accomplish the goal that I had dreamt about for so long had filled me with a sense of euphoria to the point where I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have noticed a Seviper even if it had bitten me. Luckily for me there were no Seviper in this area of Hoenn.

* * *

My trip to the Safari Zone was pretty uneventful and I arrived there a couple hours later relatively cleaner than I had expected, though not by much. It was nearly impossible to make it through the Fortree area without a healthy dose of mud covering you from head to toe. All that really mattered was that I was at my first destination and raring to catch myself a starter. There was one little problem.

"CLOSED!?"

Yep. The Safari Zone was closed for the day to make arrangements for some event that was to be held the next day.

"It's the first Annual Safari Relay tomorrow. They're setting up an area in the back for it."

I honestly hadn't expected anyone to hear my outburst considering the establishment was closed and I hadn't seen any one when I approached. Then again I wasn't really paying attention to whom might have been in the area either, none the less it was startling after being soli in my own company for a couple hours.

Spinning around I quickly noticed the person I had previously neglected to see. How, doubt I will ever know, considering how he was dressed. For lack of a better word I had run into a Poke-maniac. A crude term used to categorize a group of individuals dedicated to a particular pokemon to the point of obsession. How did I know that I was in the presence of one? He was dressed like a Wigglytuff. I couldn't see any human part of him besides his face, which was sticking out of a hole in the suit's stomach.

"….. " Taken aback by his sudden appearance I was unable to do much but gape in surprise.

"You know staring is rude." His comment snapped me out of my stupor and I felt my face heat up in embarrassment.

"Sorry, you just… caught me by surprise. What do you mean by 'First Annual Safari Relay'?" Curiosity got the best of me and I found myself asking the stranger to elaborate.

"There's going to be a bunch of courses and activities set up on the Safari Zone grounds for trainers to participate in it. It's actually set up tournament style, in which the number of contestants for each event decreases until there is a winner. The winner and runner-up each receive a special pokemon as a prize, and I bet there will be a ton of trainers showing up for a chance to win." The Wigglytuff man seem more than glad to explain the details to me and judging from the pride in which he seemed to take in the contest, he was most likely a local from Lilycove.

"Is there an entrance fee?" I don't know what compelled me to ask that question, after all if there was a fee it would be more intelligent to wait until the completion was over and then return to the Safari Zone to catch myself a pokemon. Yet at the same time the concept of a special prize pokemon was somewhat thrilling.

"Ah, yes. I do believe so." The Wigglytuff man paused momentarily and then nodded; at least I think he did. It was hard to tell since the whole suit bobbed with his every movement. "If my memory serves, its 100 poke less than the normal fee to enter the Safari zone.

400 poke, that would end up leaving me with 100 poke remaining from the money mom had given me and then I had 2000 poke of my own on hand. Looking back I have to say signing up the next day would be one of the best choices I had ever made and it was defiantly the best 400 poke I would ever spend.

"Now that I think about it there isn't just one prize pokemon… there's a bunch of choices that get narrowed down by the contests." Sadly I was already running off towards Lilycove, hoping to snag a free room at the pokemon center before they were all taken up by trainers stopping by to take part in the contest as well. If I had known this little tidbit of information perhaps I would have been more prepared for the following day's activities.

* * *

The Wigglytuff man shook his head amusedly as he watched the mud soaked teen race off towards the ocean bordered city without bothering to listen any further to him.

"Kids these days… But out of all the trainers I've seen pass by today that one is the oddest of the bunch. I wish her the best of luck tomorrow."

* * *

**Poke*: Since the actually currency in the pokemon universe is undefined I'm usung poke(from the PMD games) as the form of money.**

**Enjoy and reveiw if you have any suggestions or critiques about my writing. Flaming is welcome as well because it is so darn funny to read.**


End file.
